Today marks the anniversary of Rachel’s death, seven years ago, in the occupied territory of Palestine.

There will be a remembrance tonight, March 16, at the Urban Onion Ballroom, 116 Legion Way SE, from 6:30pm - 9:30pm. It’s a potluck, so bring a dish to share. There will be updates from a festival in Gaza, community discussion, a Q&A forum, and updates from Rachel’s parents on their effort toward accountability with a civil case in Israel.

On the anniversary of her squishing, rather than think about a stupid, brainwashed, terrorist apologist, I’ll spend the day thinking about a few other Rachels, all of whom were murdered by the palestinian terrorists who were Rachel Corrie’s friends............

The president will refuse to make fund-raising visits during November elections to any district whose representative has not backed the bill.

...put aside the present for the moment and step into my time machine. Dial the date selector back to 2005 when the Republican majority in Congress approved a national debt limit increase using a self-executing rule similar to the Slaughter Solution.

Guess who went to federal court to challenge the constitutionality of the move? The Ralph Nader-backed Public Citizen legal activists.

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It’s important to be clear that the issue before the court was whether a minor text correction was sufficient to satisfy the constitutional requirement that both chambers of Congress must pass the exact same bill. In this 2005 case, the court ruled the minor correction was acceptable.

The deeming of an entire bill to have been passed without a prior recorded vote goes far beyond a minor text correction, so the constitutional principle clearly would be violated by the Slaughter Solution.

And now for the kicker, guess who joined Public Citizen in that suit with amicus briefs:

Nancy Pelosi

Henry Waxman

Louise Slaughter

A lot of you have probably already heard about Conet, or at least the Numbers Stations, as they’re pretty old news - like, cold-war old.  But they’re still interesting and weird.

Numbers stations (or number stations) are shortwave radio stations of uncertain origin. They generally broadcast artificially generated voices reading streams of numbers, words, letters (sometimes using a spelling alphabet), tunes or Morse code. They are in a wide variety of languages and the voices are usually female, though sometimes male or children’s voices are used.

Example of the latter: the Swedish Rhapsody Irdial recording.  The weird static-y music box is odd enough, but when that monotone, synthesized little-kid voice kicks in it gets hair-raising.

You can download all four discs of these, or individual files, for free (legally) from Irdial.  Click the link and look for The Conet Project about 3/4 down the page.

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“ FOX News contributor, author, pundit and highly successful internet radio show hostess Tammy Bruce seen here in the Bahamas with married conservative female blogger...”

the time for talking is over…

President Barack Obama’s motorcade went past the lines of protesters about 12:30 p.m. today, and many of those lining the street started chanting, “Kill the bill,” referring to Obama’s health care proposal.

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By 11:30 a.m., the number of protesters stretched over three blocks with American flags and placards; drivers in cars and trucks honked as they went by.

LCS

words, phrases or images that make you want to kickbox someone…

My newest chafes: Wall Street Casino.

And “cute” kitty avatars.

The Kirkland man who shot and seriously wounded a robber at his home is a well-known Washington medical marijuana activist named Steve Sarich.

Sarich tells The Associated Press that it happened early Monday morning after his dogs barked and woke him up. He walked down a hallway with a .22-caliber handgun when he was confronted by a man with a shotgun, who raised it and fired. Pellets hit Sarich in the face and the leg, and he says the main blast nearly took his head off.

Sarich also fired, but missed.......

With the help of the MRC’s talented Bob Parks, the Culture and Media Institute produced a video based on its report, “Sex, Violence and Hate: the Top 10 Most Disgusting Attacks on Conservative Women.”

From Playboy magazine’s “hate f---” list to comparing Sarah Palin to a case of “herpes,” the media took every opportunity to tear down conservative women, not based on what they had to say or the values they promoted, but by commenting on their looks and perceived sexual behavior in incredibly misogynic ways…

Americans who voted for “hope and change” are feeling buyer’s remorse. In honor of President George W. Bush and the conservative cause, we’re pleased to introduce the new “Miss Me Yet?” Bumper Sticker and T-shirt! We’re also asking you to sign a “We Miss You” Letter to President Bush and a “Stop Blaming Bush” Letter to Barack Obama…

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.........It began to dawn on me that my carbon usage was just the tip of the iceberg. I was literally devouring the Earth little by little as I used up all the other elements as well! Forget about my carbon footprint: What about my aluminum footprint? My oxygen footprint? My plutonium footprint? If I want to be serious about “living lightly on the land,” I feel that a complete inventory of ALL my elemental footprints is in order. And through that process, perhaps we all can learn to lower our footprints of each and every natural element.

Let us begin the inventory...........

Concerns about an Oregon Department of Transportation employee who purchased several guns after being placed on leave prompted law enforcement across Southern Oregon to step in.
Negotiators and a SWAT team from Medford police safely took a man — whose name wasn’t released — into protective custody Monday morning in the 500 block of Effie Street, Medford police said in a news release.
He was taken to Rogue Valley Medical Center for a mental-health evaluation [ now part of his medical record ] …

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All of those firearms were purchased legally, with required record checks by the Oregon State Police.
Authorities were “extremely concerned” that the man may have been planning to retaliate against his employers, the news release said.
“Instead of being reactive, we took a proactive approach,” OSP Sgt. Jeff Proulx said....

President Barack Obama’s embrace of a national database to store the DNA of people arrested but not necessarily convicted of a crime is heartening to backers of the policy but disappointing to criminal-justice reformers, who view it as an invasion of privacy.

Others also worry the practice would adversely affect minorities.

In an interview aired Saturday on “America’s Most Wanted,” Obama expressed strong agreement as host John Walsh extolled the virtues of collecting DNA at the time of an arrest and putting it into a single, national database…

Vilmar and Melissy

An obese mother in the US is trying to put on weight in order to become the world’s fattest woman.
Donna Simpson, from New Jersey, weighs 273kg but told the Daily Mail newspaper she had her heart set on reaching her goal weight of 1000lb (450kg) in two years.

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In order to pay for the enormous amounts of food she is eating — her weekly grocery bill is $815 — Ms Simpson makes money by running a website where men pay to watch her consume fast food.